But.... .38 Super is smaller than .45, ain't it?
Just kiddin'. I whooped myslef up a nice .38 Super compensated gun for the '88 Steel Challenge. I was not up to speed yet on handloading and didn't have time before the match so I tuned everything to factory 130 FMJ. Now, at the Steel Challenge there's no power floor (or at lest in '88 there wasn't), so the poads are/were incredibly light. You aren't knocking the plates over just hitting them. Some guys have even cooked up straight-blowback .38 Supers to work with the powder puff loads. So, I got the same comment from at least two RO's: "You have the loudest gun here, Bub".
That gun saw me through several seasons of steel matches, IPSC, and the Nine Pin event at Second Chance. Much of the time I used a gas-checked cast bullet out of a mold made by me, that threw a rather pointy 155 grain bullet. I never got into making major with the 115's, although I did use the for some of the lighter loads. My favorite light load though was to just by UMC .38 Auto, not Super, but .38 Auto. These were the same 130 FMJ but at about 900, super mild out of that gun. I won a gun or two or three with it at Second Chance. BTW I routinely used that .38 Auto brass for loading to major. One day I took a case, I forget what brand it was but conventional wisdom was that it was the worst for loading super to major, and I loaded it to major, fired it, reloaded it, fired it, repeat 12 times. I just never had a problem with blown cases, but like I say I never used the lighter bulets, either, always 150 grains minimum.
This was one of the few personal guns that I let go. It was a way for me to take over a new .45 pin gun I was building for a guy, and I really needed a new pin gun at the time. We traded, but I know where it is and I'll have it back some day!
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I think I might just leave well enough alone this time and stick with the 10mm. Waddayathink, Ted? 10mm commanders sound cool to you?
